Me Gusta Ropa Vieja

The Cuban side of me loves authentic Cuban cooking and I can be sure to find such cuisine here in South Florida, however I wanted to be able to show off my heritage in my own kitchen. After searching up and down for the perfectRopa Vieja, I opted to use a life line- I called my mom. We talked it out and came up with one together that could be done in the slow cooker. I executed it last night and the family (including Mom) approved! Phew. Now, for those of you who aced Spanish 101, you may be thinking "rope vieja" means "old clothes." Well, you're right! There are several theories out there for the origin of its name, but my Cubana pal (Julie) tells me that in Spain they used to get a roast and cook it all week to make a broth. By the end of the week it was looking old and ragged so they would shred it and spruce it up with sauce to make it more tender, all the while resembling "old clothes." Either way, it tastes amazing and I am so glad to have a recipe for one of my favorite dishes of all time!

Give yourself 30-45 minutes to prep everything and then once it's in the slow cooker you're pretty much done!